Related Stories

Many candidates say they've accepted some level of vandalism to their campaign signs, but unusual and sometimes costly damage has at least one candidate concerned about "a concerted campaign" of vandalism.

​Denley said these damaged signs cost more than $1,000 ($10 for the bigger signs plus stakes) and kept volunteers from putting up others elsewhere.

"Every campaign loses some but this is targeted, on Meadowlands (Drive)... every PC sign destroyed and every Liberal sign intact," he said.

Other campaign teams in the riding say they haven't been spared. Liberal Bob Chiarelli's signs have been knocked down, NDP Alex Cullen's have been cut up and Green Party Alex Hill's signs have been burned, campaign workers say.

Generally, politicians learn to live with it

In Ottawa South, both Liberal candidate John Fraser and PC candidate Matt Young said some of their signs have been burnt down.

"That's kind of an unusual way of destroying a sign, it's a lot easier to knock one down than set it on fire — and a bit more dangerous," Fraser said.

Young's campaign said one woman who had her lawn sign set on fire simply called them back and asked for a bigger one.

Ottawa West-Nepean PC candidate Randall Denley has piled part of what he estimates is about $1,000 worth of damaged campaign signs behind his Centrepointe Drive office. (Andrew Foote/CBC)

In Ottawa Centre, signs for the NDP's Jennifer McKenzie and Liberal YasirNaqvi were slashed along the Byron Avenue bike path over the weekend.

McKenzie, a former school board trustee, said she's come to accept that vandalism happens across all levels of campaigning.

"This is my third campaign, I think the first time it happened to me I thought more about it but I'm much more pragmatic this time," she said.

"We let people know and we fix it and we move on."

Ottawa police said they haven't received enough complaints about damaged signs to put out an advisory to the public.

They said anyone caught damaging an election sign faces a criminal mischief to property charge, which could result in a fine or jail time.